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There is growing recognition that to make real progress and deliver real change within our society, our economy and in our workplaces to achieve inclusion everyone has to take responsibility. It is not the Government’s sole responsibility, nor is it the public sector, nor is it the private sector.

The Scottish economy would benefit by additional billions if we achieved gender pay parity – £6.5bn to be exact.

A 5% rise in the employment rate of adults with a disability would see an extra £6bn contribution to the UK economy by 2030.

Full representation of ethnic minorities in the workplace would benefit the economy by £24bn per annum.

Fear of discrimination and exclusion keeps many LGBT employees closeted at work – this is a loss of talent and potential to thousands of workplaces up and down the country.

In 2018, facing the continued economic challenges that we hear about daily, can a business afford not to be Diverse and Inclusive?

When we launched Scotland’s Diversity Conference in May 2017 with The Herald we knew that there was great work going on across Scotland and that there were inspiring individuals working tirelessly to achieve change. At our conference we welcomed over 200 individuals who were all committed to finding out more about what they could do to support their organisation to move forward.

Fast forward into a new year and whilst we are making progress we still face a long road ahead.

Gender Pay Gap legislation, introduced last April requiring all organisations with more than 250 employees to report their pay gap, is still to capture a true reflection of pay across our industries. Just over 10% of 8,000 organisations have reported so far – yet the deadline to report is less than 8 weeks away… We have to seriously ask why this is the case when this is a statutory requirement?

Despite the challenges, we are excited to launch the 2018 Conference to be held in May. Inclusion must be everyone’s business. It must be a standard agenda item on FTSE 100 company boards and on senior management teams in our small to medium sized enterprises. And it must spread across an entire organisation – rhetoric from the top won’t change the behaviours of an entire workforce unless everyone buys in to truly embracing inclusion.

Our 2018 conference will focus on Action and sharing lessons and experiences from organisations on their diversity journey, even if that is just taking the first few steps to developing a strategy and understanding where challenges begin. We will also hear from inspiring individuals who prove that there is no limit to what we can achieve.

It’s 2018 and it is time for action. This is everyone’s collective responsibility. Join us.

It seems lately that there’s still a lot of talk about diversity and equality in the workplace. We are still faced with reading articles about individuals working for global brands where there are searing misconceptions about men’s work and women’s work but no actions or plans in place to change mind-sets and behaviours. Too much chat and not enough positive action.

Just this week we have had more evidence and insights into the reality of pay gaps across the UK. Research by the EHRC has highlighted that:

Women in Scotland are paid 16% less than men

Ethnic Minorities are paid 5.7% less than white people

Disabled people are paid 13.6% less than non-disabled people.

Data doesn’t lie and this reality tells us that we still have a long journey ahead of us to achieve equality in the workplace for all.

Transparency and legislation is helpful in bringing these issues to the boardroom tables and to senior management forums. However, since Gender Pay Gap legislation was introduced in April we have had 48 employers publishing their data. That’s 48 employers currently out of around 9,000 who will be required to publish their details before April 2018.

What’s often missing from conversations is the absolute economic and business benefit that can be gained by greater diversity and inclusion.

McKinsey research states that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform companies that are not. McKinsey also state that if women could achieve parity with men we would see an additional $12 trillion added to global growth.

In the UK, gender equality would boost female earning by £85bn – though at the current rate of change we’d need to wait another 24 years to realise this benefit!

At GenAnalytics we are working with organisations to help them understand the business benefits of diversity, how they can foster an inclusive work culture, and how they can attract and retain talent.

With many industries citing skills shortages as their number one business continuity concern talent needs to be found beyond traditional recruitment practices. For example, in ICT, only 17% of the workforce in Scotland is currently female.

So we are working to change the record from conversation to action. Bold steps, transparency, leadership, ownership, and acknowledgment of challenges is needed from all our companies.

Our future economic growth and business success depends on it. As do the individuals in our society who should be free to achieve their full potential regardless of background, sexuality, race, gender, or disability.

Evidence continues to prove that diversity in the workplace is good for bottom line business performance, talent attraction and talent retention.

However, despite the evidence, the pace of change to achieving equality is stubbornly slow. Across the UK the pay gap remains 18% yet in some sectors this is as high as 40%. Women continue to dominate sectors where work is low paid and low skilled. Women are underrepresented in growing sectors including ICT. And, in sectors where women have better representation there are not enough women in senior leadership positions.

Achieving gender equality will need focus and efforts by government, the private and public sector and individuals – there is no quick and easy solution.

Men have a major role to play in ensuring women have the opportunity to achieve their ambitions and potential in the workplace. 99% of companies employing 250 people or more in Scotland are run by men. No Scottish companies who are listed in the FTSE 100 are run by women.

Yet men are often overlooked in terms of their importance to achieving equality and their views are not sought or known.

At GenAnalytics we have recognised the importance of men on this key economic issue and the valuable role they can play in identifying the challenges and solutions to solving this.

That is why we have undertaken the first male attitudes survey on gender equality in Scotland through a range of quantitative and qualitative analysis and the results are insightful.

Workplace Equality

73% of our respondents believed that we had not achieved gender equality in the workplace in Scotland.

When we asked men to consider if gender equality had been achieved in their industry sector 64% did not consider that it had.

However, despite a perceived lack of progress at industry and national level 79% believed that both women and men were treated equally within their workplace.

Our research and analysis aimed to gain more detailed insights into individual views and when we asked what the barriers were to achieving equality the following quotes represented some of the views received:

“Male Bias at boardroom level”

“Unconscious and conscious bias in Senior Management”

“Ignoring the problem”

“The Old Boys Network”

“People hire people like themselves so status quo is hard to shift”

“Perception that women lose interest after giving birth”

“Structural sexism in wider society and economy is reproduced in the workplace”

Importance of Equality to Future Business Success

Despite a lack of progress and barriers to achieving equality an overwhelming majority of our respondents recognised that this was vital to the future success of their industry.

So we can safely assume from our research so far that there has been a lack of progress yet there is recognition that gender equality is important to a business’s future success.

Gender Pay Gap Reporting

As we mentioned at the start of this analysis, the pace of change is still slow and Governments in Scotland and the UK are recognising the power of legislation to drive through change at a faster rate.

This year, all companies employing 250 staff are more will be required to publish gender pay gap information. This will deliver a step change in focusing companies to consider their pay gap and the reasons for it.

Just under a majority of respondents welcomed this legislation believing that additional transparency will reduce inequality. However, we can see from our results that with just under 35% unaware of the legislation there is still work to be done to raise the profile of this new law.

Views on Gender Quotas

We explored the views of me on legislation to support greater gender equality by asking if they supported quotas for women on public and private boards.

Just over half of men surveyed did not support the introduction of quotas on public boards.

In addition, a higher majority – 53% – did not support quotas on private boards.

These results are insightful given the focus at a Scottish Government level to achieve a 50:50 gender balance on all public boards by 2020 and an aspiration to increase women on FTSE Boards over the next few years

Caring Responsibilities

Our survey also sought to understand male views to caring responsibilities and family friendly policies within their place of employment.

70% of respondents work for an organisation that promotes shared parental leave and encouragingly 55% of men surveyed stated that they would consider using shared parental leave for their own family circumstances.

Family Friendly Policies

An overwhelming majority of men believed that more family friendly policies will improve gender equality. However, with current low levels of uptake by men on shared parental leave we know there is work still to be done.

Conclusions

To shift the needle and begin to make real progress in achieving gender equality in the workplace we must engage men at all levels and understand their views.

Men across Scotland recognise the importance of diversity for the ongoing success of the industry that they work in and in their own organisations.

However, they are less likely to support legislation and quotas to achieve change. Given the direction of travel in Scotland and the UK to develop and implement legislation to focus the spot light on gender equality and drive change we need to ensure that we continue to talk about the benefits of diversity.

As we have seen regularly in the last few weeks there are still so many misconceptions about women’s work versus men’s work.

There is also an aspiration for men to use shared parental leave for their own family circumstances yet we know what take up of these policies by men remains stubbornly low.

Achieving gender equality in the workplace is not just the right thing to do. It is imperative for economic growth and the future success of our companies and industries.

There is still a long journey ahead of us but at GenAnalytics we are engaging, talking and working with organisations who want to achieve a diverse balance in their workplace – because they recognise it is the smart thing to do.

GenAnalytics

August 2017

(This survey was conducted by GenAnalytics in Spring 2017. Respondents were drawn from the public and private sectors and were at all different stages in their careers)

Whilst we are all enjoying the prospect of summer holidays and (hopefully) more good weather ahead, at GenAnalytics and The Herald we are turning our attentions to autumn and our second Diversity Awards.

We launched the Diversity Awards in Scotland last year to showcase and recognise organisations and individuals across all sectors of our economy who are committed to promoting diversity, equality and inclusion within their workplaces.

It was hugely encouraging last year to read all the entry submissions and learn more about the efforts and energies to drive change and achieve inclusion. What we also found was more and more organisations recognising that this was not only the right thing to do but that there were tangible business benefits by adopting diversity and inclusion strategies and implementing them.

Importantly however we also welcomed entries from organisations who were on the early stages of the diversity journey and who acknowledged that whilst progress had been made there was still a long way to go.

That’s why we are back again this year with the Diversity Awards taking place in Glasgow on 12 October.

We are excited to build on the success of our launch last year where over 350 individuals from a truly diverse background joined us to celebrate and recognise achievement.

Our categories have been designed to encourage applications from the public, private and third sector and from individual champions of diversity and inclusion.

Once again, we are also hugely grateful to our partners for supporting this event: City of Glasgow College, Diageo, Taylor Wimpey, MacRoberts, Glasgow Life, Solutions Driven, Skills Development Scotland, Royal Mail, Scottish Power, Standard Life, Wheatley Group, and YSC – who are absolutely committed to diversity within their own organisations and across our economy as a whole.

If you or your organisation is working to ensure that people have the opportunities to maximise their potential in the workplace and are committed to driving change then we want to hear from you.

Success attracts success and we want even more organisations to be a part of our Awards this year.

We are looking forward to all the entries and to read and understand more about the leadership being shown across Scotland on diversity, equality, inclusion and opportunities for everyone.

Last week GenAnalytics and The Herald brought together nearly 200 individuals from the public, private and third sector for the first Diversity Conference in Scotland.

Following the success of the inaugural Diversity Awards in October last year we wanted to continue to share stories of organisations really making a difference in embedding diversity throughout their workforce. And we knew that we still have to continue to reach out to as many businesses as possible to sell the business case for Diversity – to mainstream this as an economic issue.

Last week we heard about the business benefit to Scotland if we could close the gender pay gap – stubbornly sitting at 16%.

We heard about women in North Ayrshire who earn £180 a week less than men – and the recognition from that local authority that women are central to achieving inclusive economic growth. We also learned about the inescapable link between child poverty and women not in work or in low paid jobs.

Listening to our speakers talk about Diversity as good for the business, good for attracting and retaining talent, good for culture and moral amongst teams, we also heard about the challenges that remain – the uncomfortable conversations we still need to have on race and ethnic minorities participation in the workforce. We were reminded as well on the importance of an inclusive work culture so that everyone, regardless of their background, race or sexuality felt comfortable in their place of work to enable them to be able to do their jobs.

We are making progress – certainly the collective opinions on the day from our delegates and speakers recognised that – however the overwhelming conclusion was that we are only just at the beginning of truly mainstreaming diversity.

This is our focus at GenAnalytics.

We are working with organisations unlock the business and economic potential that a diverse workforce will deliver. There is still a lack of data and evidence on gender equality across all of Scotland’s main industries, on the participation of ethnic minorities, on the potential that we could harness from more people with a disability securing jobs.

We will continue to use data to mainstream Diversity.

This is what GenAnalytics set out to do just over 18 months ago. We are also on a journey but in this short period of time we have worked with some fantastic partners who share our mission and ambition. We look forward to continuing our work with them and identifying new companies and organisations to work with until we can truly say that we have unlocked the economic potential of everyone in our economy.

Simon Sinek famously inspired many businesses and individuals to understand their purpose – to start with “Why”. His best seller is based on the fact that all of us, be it in a business or as individuals, have a purpose and you need to understand your own, before you focus on the what you do and how you do it.

At GenAnalytics we have a very clear understanding of our “Why” – we want to work with organisations and companies across Scotland to create more inclusive and diverse workplaces. We believe this “Why” will enable more people to realise their full potential, have equal access to opportunities and at the same time help deliver stronger economic performance for the organisation and support inclusive growth for the economy. It’s a hugely ambitious “Why”, but our “Why” doesn’t stop with our own business objectives.

We believe the “Why” of diversity and inclusion is hugely important for everyone, as is the “What” we’re doing and “How” we’re dealing with the issues and opportunities diversity and inclusion creates in our workplaces and businesses across Scotland.

To focus on this big national question, on the 23 May Scotland will host its first ever National Diversity Conference, delivered by GenAnalytics and Herald Scotland Events. We are delighted to be supported by our partners: Standard Life plc, MacRoberts, Skills Development Scotland, City of Glasgow College, YSC, Wheatley Group, Royal Mail, Taylor Wimpey, ScottishPower, and Scottish Canals.

Here are some of the “Why’s” we will be focusing on:

Why do women earn £183 per week less than a man?

Why is the unemployment rate higher for workers from ethnic minority groups than for white workers?

Why are disabled people twice as likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people?

Why are only 17% of jobs in ICT in Scotland held by women?

Why aren’t more companies doing more to support diversity and inclusion in our workplaces?

Why aren’t we better at sharing best practice and what-works knowledge?

To learn and share in the “Why”, “Where”, “What” and “Who” of Diversity and Inclusion in Scotland, then join our conference conversation and let’s collectively start with “Why”?

At Scotland’s inaugural national Diversity Awards 2016 *, we recognised those companies, organisations and individuals who are working to make a real difference to their communities, their businesses and to the Scottish economy. We also showcased what can be achieved when as a society we put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our actions and work based activities. The Awards clearly demonstrated that it can transform lives, communities and workplaces.

The high standard of entrants and the level of activity underway across Scotland in support of greater diversity, hugely impressed not only the judging panel but also the three hundred plus individuals and organisations attending on the evening. Choosing the winners was a difficult task and recognition needs to be given to not only those receiving the accolades on the evening, but to all the individuals and organisations who are committed to making our society, our communities, our workplaces and boardrooms across the nation better and fairer places.

We also hope that through the Awards, many more companies and organisations will be encouraged to support greater equality and diversity in their workplaces and to recognise the economic, employee and community benefits that it can achieve. Evidence clearly demonstrates that improving equality and diversity in an organisation can not only lead to improved financial performance, but also enhanced people retention and talent recruitment, greater employee engagement, increased customer satisfaction and improved productivity.

At GenAnalytics, we have a bold vision and we see the Diversity Awards as a key reference point for helping drive business change and in supporting the economic transformation of Scotland’s workplaces.

We all know that so much more can be done to promote greater equality and diversity across Scotland PLC. The national Diversity Awards provides a platform to share and celebrate achievement, but also more importantly to learn from each other and to improve what we do. By understanding where we are, good and bad, we can work together to create a shared economic vision and a common purpose in what greater equality and diversity can deliver for Scotland.

Building on the Diversity Awards, we intend to work together with our partners across business and civic Scotland to transform this energy and passion into knowledge and action that we can share at our “International Diversity and Inclusion” Conference to be held in Glasgow on March 2017. We do hope that you will join with us to contribute your knowledge and expertise on how we can make equality everyone’s business in Scotland.

Dr Lesley Sawers, Executive Chair, GenAnalytics Ltd

@ProfLesleyS

* Scotland’s Diversity Awards 2016 took place on 13 October 2016 #scotdiversity16

The judging panel for Scotland’s first ever National Diversity Awards met on Wednesday this week. With over 80 entries from a range of third sector, public organisations and large and small businesses, the level and quality of submissions was outstanding. Feedback from the independent judges was that every entry provided an excellent example of the great work that is going on across Scotland to achieve diversity and equality in the workplace and in our communities.

This is an occasion when I really do wish everyone could be a winner – when we see the commitment and focus of these individuals and organisations and when we consider the impact they are having on moving the diversity dial in Scotland. It’s good to know that so many people have a vision of equality at the heart of their organisation or business across Scotland.

On the 13th October, 2016 GenAnalytics and The Herald will announce the winners. And we will rightly applaud their achievements. If you also want to hear and find out more, join us on the 13th October to cheer the winners and all those doing such great work to promote equality and diversity. They deserve your support.

http://www.genanalytics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Leading-the-way.jpg194259Jane Gottshttp://www.genanalytics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/genlogo.pngJane Gotts2016-09-02 10:08:052016-09-02 10:09:57Scotland Leading the Way in Diversity

This Autumn a whole new meaning will be given to the term “vital statistics”.

Why? Because, pay and bonus gap reporting will become mandatory for over 8,000 businesses across the UK. From October, women employed in larger companies will be able to see pay rates, differences in earnings and bonus payments in their own organisations and in other companies.

At a national level, the differences in male and female earnings is well documented. We already know that for everyone pound a man earns, a woman earns 85 pence. Or put another way, on average a woman works for free for two months of the year compared to a man. Within Scotland, the gender pay gap averages 17% but can be as high as 40% in the legal and professional services sector and 23% in the construction industry. Soon we will be able to see exactly where and in which companies these differences arise.

Whilst the introduction of national pay gap measures is a welcome development, we still have some way to go to ensure full transparency on workplace information on diversity across many sectors and organisations. Given the slow pace of change in many areas such as flexible working, affordable childcare, skills and training, and boardroom appointments it is clear that women cannot wait for “things” to get better and for societal attitudes to change of their own accord. My own personal belief that we could achieve workplace equality through the natural progression of younger generations and without the need for Government policy or legislative intervention has long faded.

In fact, evidence shows that societal attitudes and behaviours can take up to 20 years to shift, at least one generation or sometimes longer. A recent study by Kramer and Harris showed that millennial men (i.e. those aged between 16 and 36 years old) are just as “sexist” (their words) as their fathers’ generation. Many of the male participants in this study believed their careers should take precedence over their partners, and two thirds held the view that their wives or partners should deal with childcare. Another US based study, conducted by Pew Research, also worryingly highlighted that the majority of young males interviewed believed that gender equality had been achieved in the workplace and there was no need for further policy changes at a national level. Both studies suggest that if something isn’t done soon to change millennial male attitudes this could have serious consequences for the advancement of women to senior positions in the future.

My own Review* conducted on behalf of the UK Government Scotland Office and published last year, identified the need for more measures on gender equality as one of its Key Recommendations. It also called for the development of a national framework or plan to assess progress and the impact not just of Government policy but also of company actions. The development of a “National Gender Workplace Plan” for Scotland, involving business, government, third sector, public sector and key stakeholder groups would ensure we combined our resources, expertise and energy against an agreed set of goals and measures. This would help increase the pace of change and the overcoming of inertia in key areas. Importantly, it would also identify the KPI’s or business performance measures that would deliver greatest value to the economy, to women and their families and to society.

We still have some way to go in agreeing a national set of gender performance measures that we can all sign up to, and over one year on there is no “Gender Workplace Plan” or collective strategy that businesses and organisations can work together to deliver. And we still lack a set of uniform equalities measures across the public and private sectors that link to economic and business performance. On the upside, the move towards mandatory pay gap reporting will at least ensure transparency of pay data. Once published the hope is that pressure from employees, customers, shareholders, stakeholders and from women themselves will force companies to take action. As Drucker famously said, “What gets measured, gets done” pay gap reporting is one set of vital statistics that soon we can all share.

Dr Lesley Sawers

Executive Chair

GenAnalytics Ltd

*“The Role and Contribution of Women to the Scottish Economy” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-role-and-contribution-of-women-in-the-scottish-economy

(version of this article first published in BWS Magazine July/August 2016)

Last year I completed an Independent Review, commissioned by the UK Government Scotland Office, which examined the “Role and Contribution of Women to the Scottish Economy”. The subtitle of the Review was ”Womenomics”, a term coined in Japan to help a very male dominated culture and society recognise the economic contribution that greater participation by women in civic society and business could achieve.

Given the recent decision by Muirfield Golf Club members to continue to exclude 52% of the population from its membership, sadly it seems that within Scotland we also still have work to do to convince a minority of people of the value and economic benefit that a more diverse and equal society can deliver.

This decision, as it stands, will mean that the British Open, one of the most iconic and prestigious golf tournaments in the world, will not return to a venue just twenty-one miles outside Edinburgh, our Capital City. The loss of this event to the Scottish economy is estimated to be in the region of £100m, the impact on our international reputation and national brand as a welcoming and caring nation is immeasurable.

Major sporting events are a key economic driver for Scotland and our reputation on the world stage has been hard earned through significant public and private sector investment in infrastructure, facilities, marketing and promotion. The 2015 Open Championship in St Andrews delivered £140 million of economic benefit to Scotland – the largest amount ever achieved by a golf event in the United Kingdom or Ireland, according to an independent economic impact assessment, commissioned by golf’s governing body the R&A.

In Scotland, we host the Open more times than any other part of the UK. It brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to this country and generates significant business for hotels, restaurants, local businesses and the wider Scottish economy. But most importantly, it supports valuable and much needed jobs in tourism, hospitality and retail. All sectors dominated by female workers. This decision by a small group of private club members potentially has ramifications for many women beyond the Clubhouse or course. It can be reversed and like many, I hope that it is. If not on social and moral grounds, then surely in terms of its economic and business impact.

In July this year, the Ayrshire town of Troon will host the 145th Open. The Royal Troon Golf Club is also currently consulting its members on whether to end its “men-only” membership policy. Its Captain has already stated “it is important that the club, much like the wider game, reflects the modern society in which we exist”

Let’s all hope Royal Troon members better understand the concept of “Womenomics” and why equalities and diversity matters in our civic society.